upvc door locks

[brass monkey]

handle on the left has lots of play in it, maybe 15-20 degrees before anything moves. At some point I reckon it'll just spin around and I'll prolly be locked-in. It's a multi-point thingumybob with about 5 bolts. Thing is, I see no way to remove the handle to attempt a repair, no screws etc, zilch. Any ideas anyone? Cheers.

[Cash]

The handle on the left has lots of play in it, maybe 15-20 degrees

brass monkey,

On the internal side of the door, you seem to have two small squares - (bottom and under the handle [sticky pads in reality]).

Have a look at these, and it should be obvious that these can be levered off revealing the heads of the bolts holding the handles.

Cash

[John]

The handle on the left has lots of play in it, maybe 15-20 degrees before

Have you looked under those square covers? That is where the screws usually are.

[brass monkey]

> The handle on the left has lots of play in it, maybe 15-20 degrees before

Cheers guys, it does appear to be the only possibility, I'll jemmy 'em out and see :) It feels as though the square in the handle is enlarged. Hopefully the mechanism is ok.

[nnk]

>> The handle on the left has lots of play in it, maybe 15-20 degrees

good chance that a small part of of the lever in the 'engine' has broken off - happened to both of ours - in the end i replaced the engine - about £40 from a local locksmith (the strips for the multipoint locks did not need replacement - or the lock mechanism - justr the 'engine') - in one case the small lump of casting jammed the lock so it needed dissembling in the othe case it just developed the limp handle syndrome

[John]

>>> The handle on the left has lots of play in it, maybe 15-20 degrees

The usual problem is the square hole getting rounded off. New handles may be the simple answer.

[Mark]

>>>> The handle on the left has lots of play in it, maybe 15-20 degrees

But it is the "engine" that has the hole. Therefore new handles would not help. (I have generally found that it is the "machine" that fails first. Handles seem to last for ages.)

[John]

>>>>> The handle on the left has lots of play in it, maybe 15-20 degrees

Okay - but my experience has been the opposite - soft die cast handles which wear / split - but a machined brass part in the mechanism.

[locksmith]

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When you get the handles off have a look through the hole where the spindle enters the mechanism and check the square that you will see.Make sure it h as not rounded off or cracked and check that there is not a lot of play in it.

[John Rumm]

The handle on the left has lots of play in it, maybe 15-20 degrees before

Perhaps you should have mentioned that nearly 3 years ago...